Espen Berg: piano; recorded in February 2012, released November 2012Espen Berg has been previously heard accompanying masterful saxophonist Marius Neset, so I was not expecting to encounter such a collection of dreamy impressionism, stemming perhaps from the romanticism embedded in the folk music traditions of Norway. Certainly there is some jazz influence in there too and feasibly other influences such as gospel and soul – call them Afro-American folk if you like.Certainly, the pianist is a skilled technician, but his lyricism struck no particular chord with me and I found my attention drifting away frequently, even during those tracks described as ‘freely improvised’. They somehow just didn’t seem like that. The music is imbued with an emotional aesthetic, laid over some quite complex structures. The ever present inclination to simple melody is doubtless a personal mannerism and will of course have great appeal for the quixotic amongst us, but after three or four tracks it began to sound repetitive to me and that is what tunes are.